Wouldn't Change A Thing
by fmjl11
Summary: Meredith comes up to him about two days before the wedding and tells him that this Rachel chick is flying in for the week and taking his room. She's Owen's cousin apparently and she can't afford to shack up in a hotel room. He's not sleeping on the couch for a week and a half just because Meredith decides she wants to take in every stray that happens to walk into the place.


**A/N 1: So I've been thinking about writing an Alex/Rachel fic for a while and finally decided to take the plunge. Basically the plot line is set up as Rachel is invited to her cousin Owen's wedding in Seattle, obviously he was chosen to be the relative because they are both gingers, what other reason do you need. Any reviews you could give me would be really appreciated as I've been working on this story about twice as long as any other one I have ever written. I am nowhere near qualified to be an author so keep that in mind as you're reading; also all mistakes grammar and otherwise belong to me. Thanks, and happy reading.**

Wouldn't Change A Thing

So, here's the deal. Rachel's really cleaned up her act since she graduated from Tree Hill High two years ago. She's one more semester away from getting her nursing degree at the University of North Carolina. She only chose it because she knew it had a good job outlook but she actually kinda loves it. She pretty much told her parents to "fuck off" after her first year at school when they told her that she wasn't smart enough to make it though the program so she bartends part time and it's not much but it pays the bills and has gotten her all the way through school with only a $1,500 loan. She's pretty proud that she's getting through it relatively unscathed.

When she gets home from her shift on Friday night all she really wants to do is roll into bed and not get out for another 24 hours. It's a holiday weekend so she doesn't have school and she's excited to have a little break. She goes through her mail as she brushes her teeth and she's pretty psyched when she gets her cousin Owen's wedding invitation in the mail because she hasn't seen him since he left for Afghanistan a couple of years ago, other than their occasional Skype date. It's in two weeks so she calls up her boss and makes sure she can get the week off (she's not going out to Seattle long enough for the wedding and getting her ass home the very next day) and then finishes up all of the homework that she's sure she'll miss. Then she calls Owen to ask about what hotel she should stay at. He tells her not to worry about it, that his friend Meredith has a ton of extra room and she should save her money for school. She's secretly grateful because she can put that money toward the books that she'll have to be paying for soon.

The next week is so long it almost kills her. It's getting closer and closer to the end of the semester so her classes are pretty intense. Her teachers are totally cool with her missing a couple classes as long as she doesn't fall behind and it's a lot easier said than done. The work just keeps piling on and the bar was insane. She's never had so many drinks spilled on her in such a short period of time. By the time Friday rolls around she really questioned even going to this thing but she's already bought the plane ticket and that shit is non refundable.

XX

He's getting real sick of everyone talking about this stupid wedding. It's Christina for God's sake. It's not like this is her first wedding, he'd be surprised if she even made it down the isle anyway. As far as he's concerned marriage is about the stupidest thing that anyone can commit to. Look at the weddings that go on in this place; Meredith and Derrick wrote on a freakin' post-it, Altman and that Henry dude got hitched just to get the guy an insurance policy, Izzie left him without a word as soon as she was well enough to leave. It was all complete bullshit. The only thing he has to look forward to about this thing is the free food and the possibility of some slutty wedding sex.

Meredith comes up to him about two days before the wedding and tells him that this Rachel chick is flying in for the week and taking his room. She's Owen's cousin apparently and she can't afford to shack up in a hotel room. He's not sleeping on the couch for a week and a half just because Meredith decides she wants to take in every stray that happens to walk into the place. Hell, he doesn't even know the girl yet and he already hates her. Whatever, he'll steal April's room. He's been here longer and maybe he can squeeze a little bit of Seattle Grace loyalty out of Meredith before this chick gets here.

The house is like _insane. _He can't hardly get an hours worth of sleep in before people are up and about getting ready for this thing, like for someone that doesn't want to have a fancy shindig they're sure making a lot of noise.

"What the hell is going on here?" he calls out to the group as he walks down the stairs. "It's 6 in the morning! The wedding isn't for another day and a half."

"We had to get you out of your room somehow, Evil Spawn." Christina says from her spot on the couch. "Owen went to pick up his cousin 20 minutes ago. They'll be here in 10 minutes and we've got to wash your sheets. God knows what's been in them."

"Oh no. She's taking Kepner's room, remember? We talked about this, Meredith!"

"No, you talked now go get you're sheets I don't have time for this."

"Whatever." He groans as he heads back up the stairs and pulls the sheets off of his bed.

XX

"Owen!" she calls from across the crowded airport as she waves her hands above her head. "Over here!"

She's got on a black tank top and some cut off shorts she's never understood those people that wear nice clothes on a plane, like why don't you schedule an early flight and change clothes at the hotel? Anyway, she's got her hair in a ponytail and she put on a little bit of make up as she was waiting for the plane to land. Even though she dressed comfy she knows that she looks good, it's one of the perks of being her she supposes.

"Rach." He smiles as he crosses the room, scooping her up into his arms. "Long time no see. How are ya?"

"Tired." She replied with a laugh, "That plane ride is killer, dude."

"Well let's get you to the house, you can take a nap before we do dinner. I've got to get back to work."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you're all official now. Nice tie by the way."

"Yeah, yeah. Make fun." He replied, taking her bag from her hand as they walked. "Jesus Christ, are you moving here? This thing weighs a million pounds."

"Shut up." She laughs, "Not all of us can move across the country with only a duffle bag."

XX

"They're here!" Derrick yells up the stairs as Alex finishes putting his clothes into the laundry basket. He wrinkles his nose when April comes in and sprays some air freshener.

"Your room stinks. You don't want her to think you're dirty do you?"

"I couldn't give two shits what she thinks Kepner. In a week she'll be gone and I'll get my room back. That's all I need to know."

"You're such an ass." She says as she walks out of the room.

"You're such an ass." He mocks, just because he knows that she hates it.

XX

When they walk into the house the first thing she notices is all of the people. I mean Owen said that there were a lot of people that lived here but this was like a hospital staff sorority or something. Owen leads her into the kitchen and introduces her to a couple people; she does her best to remember Meredith, since this was her house and all, then there was Derrick, and Lexie. Owen leaves after he introduces her to some girl named April. She seems nice and all, but a little annoying at the same time. A guy named Avery comes down next and he shakes her hand before going to sit next to Lexie.

Derrick makes her a sandwich before he gets paged back to the hospital and she's glad because she's starving. Airport food is even shittier than she remembered; I mean how hard is it to just heat up a pizza or something.

XX

He grudgingly heads down the stairs a half an hour later, it's his day off and he's not on call for the first time in like ever so he plans on enjoying himself even though some stranger is taking over his bedroom. He sees Rachel's bag sitting next to the door and hears people chatting in the kitchen so he assumes that's where they've all ended up. They all look up when he walks in and grabs an apple out of the bowl sitting on the counter.

"So, where's the chick that's taking over my bedroom." He says as he looks around the room, his eyes landing on the redhead. Holy shit this girl was hot. Maybe he should have paid more attention when Owen was talking.

"That would be me." Rachel replied as she hopped off of the stool. "Rachel Gatina, and you are?"

"Alex Karev." He says as he chews. She holds out her hand and he shakes it.

"You can carry my bags then." She says after a second, taking the apple from his mouth and taking a bite before putting it back. "Lead the way Karev."

Maybe having this girl around won't be such a bad thing after all.

XX

The group of people in the kitchen stare at the door as the two exit, and awkward silence falling between them for a moment. Avery is the first to cut the silence, a loud laugh escaping his lips.

"So who wants to have a little fun with this?" He asks, "I'm betting they sleep together before the wedding on Saturday."

"No way!" Lexie replied, "I bet they're in bed together before we get back from the hospital in the morning."

"Anyone else want in on this?" Avery asks with a smirk and slowly the rest of the group nods.

XX

So this Karev guy, he's kinda hot, and he's a surgeon so he has to have good hands right? She's focused on that thought when he clears his throat and nods toward the stairs. "That way, Red." He says as he follows behind her, "First door to your left." He'd be lying if he said he didn't check out her ass as they walked up the stairs.

He set her bag down in the corner of the room and she took a look at the room. "The bathrooms across the hall, people kinda go in and out as they please so if you want privacy you might want to lock it." He says.

"So where do they have you sleeping? She asks after a minute as she stretches out over the bed. "You draw the short stick or something?"

"Not exactly." He replied, "I'm crashing on the couch downstairs."

"That's stupid." She replies, her eyes are closed and she realizes that this is like the most comfy bed she's ever been in, like, in her entire life. "This bed is the bomb."

"Well, I'll remember that when I'm stuck on the couch." He scoffed. "Thanks for rubbing it in."

"Why don't we just split it?" She suggested, "I mean it's not like you've never had two people in this bed before, right?"

He stares at her for a second, she assumes it's to try and figure out if she's being serious or not. "That's usually for an entirely different reason, Red."

"Well then it's time to try something new isn't it." She smiles and he nods a smirk on his face.

"As long as you don't snore." He jokes.

"I don't" she grins.

"I'm not on call tonight so I'm going down to the bar. You in?"

"Oh definitely," she replies, "You don't know what you just got yourself into."

XX

Yep, having Rachel around definitely wasn't going to be a problem. The group calls up when they leave for work and he puts a pizza in the oven. He's starving and he's going down to Joes in about an hour. "Red!" he calls up the stairs, "I made pizza!"

She comes down in this hot as fuck black dress and he knows that she sees him give her a once -or twice- over, but whatever if she didn't want him to look she wouldn't dress like that. Her hair is curled now and he can't really decide if he likes it better like that or when it was just in a ponytail. He slides a plate over to her as she sits. "Hope you like pepperoni." He says through a mouthful.

"My favorite." She replies. It's quite while they eat, but not an awkward quite more like an 'I want to get to the bar so shut up and eat' kinda thing and when they finish he grabs his keys from the counter.

XX

The bar that they go to is called Joes. It's a Saturday night so it's pretty packed and theirs a sign out front that says it's ½ priced margaritas so she figures that that'll be enough to get her drunk.

"Is this where y'all spend all of your time?" she asks as they walk in and a few people nod at Alex in hello.

"Pretty much." He replies, "It's right next to the hospital so it's easy to get to after a long day and the on call room is always available if you happen to drink to much to get yourself home."

"Location, location, location." She smiled, leaning against the bar top. "I'll have a margarita." She says when the bartender approaches her.

Alex orders a beer (typical) and they sit across from each other at a table in the back of the place.

"So, what do you do?" Alex asks after a minute.

"I'm getting my nursing degree at UNC this spring. Right now I bartend down there to pay the bills."

"A nurse?" Alex scoffs, "That's got to be embarrassing for the chief, he's related to a nurse." He laughs.

"Oh please, nursing is an honorable profession, not all of us can go through 100 years of school to become surgeons or whatever."

"Might as well become a teacher or something stupid like that."

"Watch it, dude."

"I'm just saying."

She's in the middle of a laugh when some blond guy approaches her; he sets another margarita on the table next to her nearly empty one. He's swaying in his spot and he's obviously already had one to many but he takes another pull from his beer bottle before he speaks, "So, I haven't seen you around here before." He says, "I'm Ricky."

"I'm not interested." She replies and Alex can't hold back a short laugh. He's shocked when this dude has the balls to actually put his hand on her shoulder.

"Excuse me?" Rachel says, looking down to where his hand was squeezing her arm. "I think I made myself clear."

"Dude, back off alright." Alex said, standing from his chair and stepping up to the guy and pushing his arm away. "She's clearly not into it so why don't you go bother someone else?"

"Why don't you mind your own damn business?" Ricky asks as Rachel stands from her chair but Alex speaks before she can get a word out.

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you to back the fuck up!"

This must have set the guy off because before Alex even knows how the react the guy's got his fist balled up and the force from the punch knocks him against the table.

"Seriously asshole?" Rachel screeches. "That's not cool!" She apparently attracts crazy's because the next thing she knows she's got a beer bottle to the face and she's on the floor. Finally she gets a reaction from the rest of the bar-goers and some other guy is pulling Ricky away before he can do any more damage.

"Red!" Alex says as he kneels next to where she's landed on the floor. "Somebody call an ambulance, now!"

XX

"So Meredith told me that your cousin is totally gonna hook up with the Evil Spawn." Christina says to Owen when she walks into his office. "Everyone's talking about it."

"They're what?" Owen responds, "No way, they don't even know each other!"

"Well according to Avery they're going to Joes tonight so I don't think that really matters." She looks down when her pager goes off and Owen follows her down the hallway.

"She wouldn't do that. If I hear anyone so much as breathe a word of that they'll have hell to pay."

"Chief, you need to leave." April says as the pair go through the doors and the ambulance pulls up.

"What do you mean?" he asks. At that moment the doors opened and Alex hopped out of the back.

"We need some help over here! They just hit her!" he yells as they wheel the gurney out of the vehicle, Alex following it on its path inside the building. There was no mistaking Rachel Gatina who was lying on the bed eyes only half open.

"Patient has a visible head wounds and a possible sprained wrist and concussion from a fall." The EMT said, "We started pulling the glass shards out on route but haven't gotten them all."

"Glass?" Owen shouted, "Karev! What the hell happened?"

"I don't know, we were at Joes getting a drink and some dude put the moves on her." He said as he watched the girl be wheeled away, both of the boys following close behind. "She shrugged him off and the dude went ape shit, tossed a punch at me and got her in the face with a beer bottle before I could get back. They were holding the guy until police came but I don't know, I figured I should come with her."

"Alright." Owen replied, "Well I can't be in there so go make sure she's alright and call Sloan for the stitches. She's getting the best."

"Will do." Alex replied, walking backward toward the room. "And I'll keep you updated."

XX

"So it looks like you might get your bed tonight after all?" Rachel says when she opens her eyes two hours later and Karev is sitting next to the bed with his eyes closed. The painkillers have mostly worn off so her head is like throbbing but it could be worse.

"You kidding me?" he asks, "Like I can leave here, your cousin will have my head for letting this happen."

"Don't lie, you'd be here either way." She grinned, "We're friends now, a beer bottle to the head pretty much cements it."

"Whatever you say, Rach. Let me go get Owen and we'll see about getting you out of here."

She's in the room alone for about 20 minutes before Owen and Alex walk in and she gives him puppy dog eyes right off the bat because she wants to get the fuck out of here and she knows if he had it his way he'd keep her over night.

"I'm fine." She says before Owen can open his mouth. "The stitches are done, and my wrist is only bruised."

"You're sure you don't want to stay over night, just to make sure everything's alright?"

"I'm staying in a house full of surgeons." She argues, "If anything happens Alex will bring me straight back." She looked to the other guy in the room, who was clearly spacing out. "Right?"

"Mhm, yeah." He said when she snapped her fingers at him. "Right back, promise."

"Well, I can't force you to stay when theirs nothing physically keeping you here. Alex, come get her discharge papers and I'll write her a prescription for the pain."

They're out of the hospital after another 20 minutes and the painkillers are totally working again because she feels great.

XX

"Can I be honest here? Since we're friends and all." he says as they take off for the house, Rachel's in the passenger seat and she's laughing like an 18 year old that's trying weed for the first time. The painkillers are clearly doing their jobs.

"Sure thing, Ally Cat." She replies.

"You scared the shit out of me tonight." He says after a minute, he doesn't know why he feels the need to be honest with her about this. "It's not like I haven't seen worse accidents, but I don't know, I just can't believe I let that happen to you."

"You can't save everyone." Rachel replies, "How could you have known that he was gonna be a crazy… oh, can we stop at McDonalds?"

"No." he laughs, looking at the redhead out of the corner of his eyes. "We're getting you back to Meredith's and into bed before something else can go wrong."

"Alright, dad. Suck the fun out of everything."

"Shut up."

She falls asleep before they even make it to the house and rather than wake her up he just lifts her out of the seat and carries her bridal style up to his bedroom. Owen scrounged her up a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from the staff lockers so he doesn't worry about getting her changed, just lays her down in the bed and covers her up before stripping down to his boxers and climbing into the other side.

XX

"Have any of you walked by Alex's room this morning?" Jackson announces as he sits down at the breakfast table and pours himself a bowl of cereal. "I shit you not, when I got out of the shower they were cuddling. With clothes on."

"No way." Lexie replies, "Alex Karev? I've got to see this for myself." Slowly she and Meredith stand from the table and creep up the stairs, stopping in the open doorway.

"This is unbelievable, I've got to send a picture to Christina." She whispered, taking her phone out of her pocket and snapping a quick picture. They stand there for a minute longer before she notices the clock on his nightstand. "Shit, his alarm's gonna go off in 2 minutes, go before he catches us!"

Lexie rolls her eyes before the pair head back down the stairs just before the sound of buzzing fills the air.

XX

Rachel's eyes open as Alex reaches over her to hit the alarm. She stretches as he looks over at her from the other side of the bed. "The stitches look good." He notes, running his thumb lightly over the cut. "Looks like you'll barley even have a scar."

"Fantastic." She replies, "You want pancakes? I'm starving."

"I have to get ready for work." He laughs, "You think I get up at 5:30 in the morning for kicks?"

"Fine, you go get ready, I'll cook." He looks at her with surprise- it's cute really that he's surprised that she can actually do something for herself. "I can cook, now go." She says again, shoving at his chest before rolling out of the bed herself. "Go." She says one last time as she disappears down the stairs.

The three people in the kitchen stare at her as she enters the kitchen, "Mind if I snake some coffee?" she asks and they all nod before she pours herself a cup. When she realizes that she took the last of it she immediately puts on another pot, she's not rude and she knows how to make a pot of coffee, she's sure she'd need it if she had to get up this early every day.

"How was work last night?" she asked when the silence continued, "I couldn't have been the most interesting person to come through the door." No one spoke up so she spoke again, "You mind if I cook some pancakes? I'm starving and I saw the mix in the cabinet when I was looking for plates yesterday."

It's Meredith who finally speaks up with a "Sure." and a "You don't have to ask, you can do whatever you'd like." Instead of continuing to try and carry on a conversation she gets the bag of pancake mix out of the cabinet and turns on the stove so it's hot when she finishes with the batter. She's handing Jackson a plate when Alex finally decides to come down and join the rest of the group.

"Yours'll be done in like two seconds." She says as he pours himself a cup of coffee and sits down at the table. She slides a plate over to him before pouring the last of the batter onto the pan to make her own. They all say thanks as she sits down with her own plate and it's not necessary, she figures if she can cook breakfast it will make them even for allowing her to stay here.

She does all of the touristy things that she can think of after they all leave, which is basically walk the streets and visit the space needle. She's done with that by lunch so after she gets herself a quick bite she heads back to the house. There's really not much to do but she does find a little picture book sitting on the coffee table in the living room. She recognizes some of the people in it; most were taken at the bar that she and Alex had visited the night before. They all seemed to be a pretty good group of friends; she hadn't had that since high school.

As she got to the back of the book it had pictures from a wedding, they were all looked great. When she got to the photos of the bride and groom she did a double take just to make sure that her eyes weren't playing a trick on her but sure enough as she slid the picture out of it's plastic casing the words Alex & Izzie were scribbled on the back next to the date.

She wondered what had happened between the two of them because surely if she was still around she would have met her by now. It was hard to picture Alex settling down with anyone; he didn't seem like the type. Maybe that's why it hadn't worked out. She takes another painkiller after that and passes out until she hears the sound of people coming into the house.

XX

"Karev." Owen catches up to him right when he walks in the door. He's hoping that it's about something work related and not him getting grilled over what happened with Rachel last night. It was a vain hope but still.

"This is really uncomfortable to have to talk to you about." He starts and Alex can't help but roll his eyes. "But word is going around the hospital and I just need to know the facts. You and Rachel, you didn't…" he trailed off and Alex already knew what he was about to say but he figured if it's bothering him enough that he has to ask about it he might as well make him suffer and get the words out. "You're not, you didn't sleep together did you?"

He actually laughs. It's probably the worst thing he can do right now but he can't fucking help it. Really, do people have nothing better to do than start rumors about him and the redhead? "Oh, you mean after she was rushed to the ER and hopped up on painkillers?" he asked, "No. We didn't sleep together. Well, I mean, we did but it was like actual sleeping, you know, like in the same bed."

"Oh." Owen replied after a moment. "Well okay then. Carry on."

"Sure thing chief." He replied, laughing again as he walked off.

The thing is, had the night ended differently he totally would have slept with her and now he can't get that thought out of his head. She's hot, she's got a nice body, and she's not to terrible to hang around with, you know, other than attracting psychos at a bar. He spends a lot more time thinking about her then he probably should and before he knows it it's already lunchtime.

"Earth to Alex!" Arizona says when he practically runs into her in the hallway. "What's up with you today?" she asks.

He starts walking along side her and responds with a shrug because saying, "I'm thinking about having sex with the chiefs cousin in the shower" just seems a little uncalled for.

He must be pretty transparent though because she just smiles all knowingly and says, "Why don't you ask her out?" Like it's not the craziest thing in the world but then his mind shifts away from sex for a minute and he realizes that maybe it actually wouldn't be. This girl is making him lose his mind.

He's exhausted, really. It's been a long day most of which he spent doing paperwork. It's not fun but it's part of the job and theirs really no getting around it. She's sitting in his bed reading a book when he walks in and grabs his towel and they just kinda smile at each other before he goes and gets into the shower.

He's acting like a girl. The whole time he's in the shower he's trying to think of what he should say to her. It's stupid, and totally not like him. He's a stud and any girl would be lucky to have a shot with him. By the time he gets out of the shower he's about ready to chicken out so he wraps a towel around his waist and walks back into his bedroom before he can change him mind.

"Willyougototheweddingwithme?" he asks before she can even look up from her book, she just tilts her head and stares at him for a second.

"What?" she asks, "Breathe Karev."

"The wedding." He says, slower this time, "Will you go with me?"

"It's here right, so don't we just go downstairs?"

"You know what I mean!" he groans, "Do you want to or not?"

She smiles this cute fucking smile and he's back to wanting to push her into the mattress and skip this whole date thing and then she says "Okay."

"Okay." He replies, scratching the top of his head. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow night then?"

"You live here." She replies, raising her brow at him, "Do you want me to leave so you can get dressed?"

"Uh, yeah." He says after a minute." They're all downstairs cooking food for tomorrow, I'm sure they could use the help."

"Sounds good." She replies, looking at him once more as she goes through the doorway. That really wasn't something she was expecting, but she kinda liked it.

XX

"What's up?" Jackson asks as she sits down at the kitchen table, is she really that transparent.

"Alex just asked me out on a date." She replies absentmindedly, "And I said yes."

He laughs and she's not really sure if she should be offended or not. "Alex doesn't date." He says after he can get a breath in.

She shrugs because she doesn't know how to respond to that and he gets up, she can hear Alex getting harassed a minute later and she wonders if everyone else will act the same way.

They all go out to dinner that night just for the fun of it. She figures it's kinda to celebrate the wedding since they aren't really having a reception, just a few close friends and family. It's a nice place and they're set up at a table in the back since there are quite a few of them. There's a guy singing covers in the corner next to a dance floor that nobody's using and she wonders if it's only used during special occasions.

She catches Alex staring at her more than once but what really surprises her is the amount of times she catches everyone else staring at him while he does so. She excuses herself to go to the bathroom when they start ordering drinks and as she touches up her lip gloss Christina and Meredith are just suddenly there, it actually makes her jump.

"We need to talk to you about Alex." Christina says, it's the first time she's ever heard the girl use his real name so she figures she better listen up. "He's one of us, so if you hurt him we'll kill you."

"Look," Meredith interrupts, "He's just had a pretty tough time recently and you're the first girl he's shown any interest in in a long time. We just don't want him to get hurt again."

"I don't really know what you're asking?" Rachel says slowly, "We haven't even been on a date yet, we haven't done anything that would make us seem like more than just friends."

"Just don't let him think you're serious about this if you aren't. He doesn't need to lose anybody else."

She says okay because really what else can she say and the three of them walk out of the restroom like nothing even happened. She can see that a few couples are now on the dance floor. A drink has been set by her plate so she picks it up and takes a sip as the table slowly starts to couple off and head over to the floor.

She's just finishes the drink off when Alex stands and walks over to her side of the table, he offers his hand without a word and she takes it and walks with him out onto the floor. Then as if it can't get any cheesier the guy starts singing a cover of L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole, he must sense it to because he chuckles a little as he pulls her into his arms.

"You know, you have some pretty good friends." She says to break the silence. She can't see but she's pretty sure he sends Christina and Meredith the finger.

"What did they say to you?" he asks, "Something embarrassing I'm sure."

"No," she replies with a smile, letting her head rest against his shoulder. "They just warned me that they'd kick my ass if I ever did anything to hurt you."

He mumbles something that sounds like "bitches" under his breath and it makes her laugh, he has a way of doing that.

XX

They hold hands under the table when they sit back down and he totally feels like a third grader but he actually likes it. They don't stay that much longer, some of the group has to work in the morning while he and some others got stuck with helping set up for the wedding, though now he's kinda happy about it because it means he'll get to see a little bit more of her.

They get back to the house a little after 12 and they all head straight up to their rooms. He stands in the hall while she changes out of her dress and waits for her to say that it's alright for him to come in, whatever, he's not a complete asshole. She's already under the covers when he walks in and shuts the door and she makes a big show of closing her eyes when he starts to strip down into his boxers.

"Alex." She says just as he's about to flip the light switch she's sitting up on her elbows and the blankets have fallen into her lap, "Are you gonna kiss me goodnight or what?"

He's more shocked by the question than he should be, honestly because that's pretty much all he's thought about all day. She raises her eyebrow at him and he realizes that she's actually expecting an answer; he just smiles as he crosses the room and leans down to press his lips against hers.

She's an amazing kisser, like, probably one of the best kissers he's ever known and that doesn't even surprise him. She's got her hand on his chest and he's got a fist full of red hair and the whole thing is a little bit to heated as far as first kisses go but neither of them seem to mind. He pulls away slowly, pecking at her mouth with a few short kisses before whispering, "Night, Red." and pulling the blankets back over her frame. He doubts he'll be getting any sleep tonight but it was totally worth it.

XX

He's nowhere to be found when she gets out of bed the next morning, it's a little after 11 and she can hear all of the people downstairs working on getting everything ready for tonight. She gets in the shower right away because she figures it'll be busy later with everyone getting ready. She's just stepping out when the door opens and Jackson stands in the doorway completely shocked for a moment before he manages to mumble out a sorry and turn around. She laughs as she wraps a towel around her chest and wrings the water out of her hair. She yells that he can come in now but when she steps out into the hallway he's nowhere to be found.

"Figures I'm not the first one in this house to see you naked." Alex says as she walks down the stairs. He's got this smile on his face that is just contagious so she sends him one back and waves at Jackson who was sitting on the couch looking less than thrilled about the current topic of conversation.

"Not my fault he moves faster than you." She replied, "You're just mad you didn't think of it first."

"Maybe." He laughs as he walks up to her and pulls her into a kiss. She can't say she hasn't been thinking about exactly that since the moment she got out of bed. "Sleep well?"

"Extraordinary actually." She replied, "I can't believe I have to go home in two days. "My bed sucks." His face falters for a second and then it hits her. What the hell are they doing? They live nearly 3,000 miles away from each other on opposite ends of the country. This is insane. She shouldn't be doing this; she shouldn't want him as bad as she does.

"I'm gonna go get some breakfast." She says when she can't think of anything to fill the silence and he just nods, the awkward tension obviously hitting him to.

"Fuck my life." She mumbles to herself once the kitchen door is closed behind her.

XX

"Smooth, dude." Jackson laughs as Alex plops back down on the couch.

"What just happened?" He groaned, "Fucking women."

"Are you guys a couple now or something?"

"No." came Alex's immediate response. "Well, I mean maybe we could be, but we're not."

"Well you better figure that out, man because if you can't figure it out yourself the reason she just freaked out is because she goes home soon and you live, I don't know, across the freaking country from each other."

"Shit." Alex said after a minute. "Shit, you're right."

"So what are you gonna do?" Jackson asked curiously.

"I don't know." Alex replied, shaking his head as he stood up and all but ran for the stairs.

What was he supposed to do? Give her up before they even had a chance to figure this whole thing out? Somehow that just seemed out of the question. He lay back in his bed trying to think of any way that he could make this work. His mind slowly drifted to what it could be like if she could stay and suddenly he got it. He got out his phone quickly and checked the time he had two hours to be back to the house in time for the wedding and not a moment to spare. With that in mind he grabbed his jacket off of the floor and was out the door in a matter of seconds.

XX

"So what's up with you and Alex?" Meredith asked, all of the girls were sitting around the kitchen table with coffee gossiping like any normal group of girls. "He really likes you?"

"How do you know that?" Rachel asked, leaning forward on her elbows, clearly intrigued, one second I feel like he likes me and the next I feel like this is some kind of cross country booty call for him.

"Trust me." She replies, "I've known Alex for a long time and I've only seen him act like this over one other girl."

"Izzie?" The redhead asked after a second, "I saw a picture of them in your photo album. What happened there?"

"She left him, what do you think happened?" Christina jumped in. "I mean Karev and I aren't even really friends and I felt bad for him. He loved her."

"During the shooting, when we almost lost him, he was asking for her. I didn't think he'd ever get over her." Lexie said, "But it's been less than a week since he met you and I can see his face light up when you're in a room. Trust me, he's falling for you, hard."

"So what do we do?" she asked slowly, "I mean, I go home soon, to the other end of the country. That's a hell of a long distance relationship for people who have known each other for 4 days."

"If I know one thing about Alex," April put in, "It's that he doesn't give up to easily on something he wants. If he really wants to be with you he'll figure out a way to make it happen, trust me."

Rachel nodded, taking a sip from her mug. "I guess we'll have to see how tonight goes." She said, "Don't you guys need to start getting ready, people will be here in like an hour."

"Shit, you're right." Christina said, "I can't get married in a t-shirt."

One by one the girls got up, Rachel slowly making it to the room she shared with Alex, she was almost completely shocked to find it empty. Where the hell was that kid.

XX

"She's in the top 10 percent of her class at UNC." Alex said, pacing back and forth around Owen's kitchen. "I called."

"And how the hell did you get them to give you that information?"

"Well I kind of pretended to be you." Alex admitted, "Told them you were interested in offering her a position after graduation in May."

"Karev!" Owen scolded, "You know I can't give her a job just because the two of you may or may not be dating 6 months from now."

"Come on, Chief. You and I both know that she'd be better at that job than half of the people we've got in the place. The board of directors gave her an excellent recommendation and plus you've got 4 nurses retiring in the spring so you're gonna need a few new staff members anyway."

"How do you know all of this?" Owen said as he straightened his tie and pulled on his suit jacket.

"I went to the hospital and looked at the records." He replied easily. "Do this for me and I'll guarantee you a PEDS surgeon when I pass my boards next year."

"Fine, you know what, if the position is open—"

"Which it will be." He interrupted.

"If the position is open she can have the job, now if you'll excuse me my wedding is gonna start in about 15 minutes."

Alex's eyes landed on the clock then, his eyes widening a bit. "Shit." He mumbled, "Shit, shit, shit!"

"One more thing, Karev." He said as the boy took off for the door, "You hurt her and I'll kill you."

Alex just sent him a smile as he reached for the door, "You won't regret this," he said as it shut behind him.

XX

Rachel looked behind her as she pulled the last curler from her hair. She's got on a one shoulder green dress with a black belt, the fabric cuts off just above her knees and the whole thing just makes her body look fantastic. It was 6:50 and still she'd seen no sign of Alex. Jackson said that he'd seen him take off about an hour and a half ago and no, he didn't know where he went or what he was doing. She figured that maybe all of this was for the best. Maybe, without a date all of this stuff would just blow over.

As if God himself wanted to answer her question a moment later, there he was, busting through the door and pulling off his shirt as he reached for the suit currently hanging on the door. He turned around as he slid the jacket on and a grin suddenly appeared on his face, clearly he hadn't noticed her standing in the corner of the room.

"You look beautiful, Red." He says, and she can't help but laugh because he's stopped to tell her that in the middle of pulling up his black pants.

"You too." She says after a moment before turning back to the mirror and checking her make-up one last time.

"You ready?" he asks a minute later, "Everyone else was already downstairs when I came busting through."

She just smiles and nods because she doesn't really know what to say that's not "What are we doing?" or "We shouldn't be doing this." She slides on her heels as they walk out the door and he grabs her hand as they walk down the stairs, she doesn't really try to hide the shocked expression on her face and he must notice because he just stops on the middle of the stairs and turns to look at her.

"If you don't want to do this then we don't have to." He says, "I thought you wanted to."

"I do." She argued, her fingers digging into the hem of her dress, a nervous habit that she'd always had. "Alex, I do, but it's just so complicated. It's hard, to let myself want this when I have to go back to reality on Monday."

He just smiles at her, like he knows something that she doesn't and says, "Why don't we just get through tonight first." She doesn't know how but that one sentence seems to be enough to put her mind at ease.

Instead of responding she leans in and presses a quick kiss to his lips. It's the first time that she's ever been the one to kiss his first and that fact isn't lost on either of them. Suddenly his hands are on her hips, pulling her in and deepening the kiss only broken when a stir of whistles erupt from the guests below.

"Can you two get down here so we can have a wedding?" Derrick yells, and she swears she's almost blushing when they finally make it down the stairs and find a spot near the back of the room.

After the ceremony is over she tells Alex that she's gonna go congratulate the bride and groom. He doesn't feel the need to trail her everywhere she goes so he grabs a glass of campaign off of the table and joins the group of people who have made their way into the kitchen.

XX

"Congratulations you guys!" she smiles as she approaches the newly-weds, pulling her cousin into a hug. "You look so handsome."

"Thanks, Rach." He grinned, "I'm glad you could be here."

"You know I wouldn't miss this for the world, you're like the only part of the family that I still like."

He looks over just as Alex disappears behind the kitchen door before his eyes met Rachel's again.

"So, you and Karev?" he asks, "It's serious?"

"I really like him, Owen." She admits, "But I just don't know how it can work with the distance and everything. I mean, we've known each other for 3 days how can I ask him to make that kind of commitment?"

Owen just shakes his head, a small laugh escaping his lips, "I don't know how I didn't see this coming." He says, jokingly, "Are you sure it has to be Alex Karev?"

"Don't make fun of me." She whines, punching him lightly in the arm.

"Trust me," he says after a moment, "He'll make the commitment. Just talk to him about it. He'd be crazy to say no."

He smiles at her when she walks into the kitchen before going back to talking about some surgery that he'd performed a couple of days ago. She likes seeing him like this, talking about something he's so passionate about; it makes her see him in a whole new light.

"Can I talk to you for a minute." She says as the group slowly starts to clear out, "There's nobody out on the porch." He nods his head and follows her out the back door, shutting it behind him.

"Listen." She says quietly as she runs her hand through her hair, "I really don't know what I'm doing, being here with you right now and it's kinda scaring the hell out of me. I don't know what you want, I don't know anything about you, really, but I do know that I like you. I like kissing you, and I just like _being _with you but I don't live here, this is your world. It's not mine. I can't ask you to start a long distance relationship with someone you don't even know."

When she finally takes a breath she's shocked by the sound of laughter coming from Alex. ""Oh God," she said, "I totally misjudged the whole thing didn't I? This was supposed to be, like, a fun fling of something, wasn't it?"

"Rach." He says after he's finally able to get his laughter under control, "Do you even realize what I just spent the entire afternoon doing?" She shook her head slowly and he smiled, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "I called UNC and practically bribed them to give me your school records." He said, "And then when I got your information I went to your freaking cousin to beg him to give you a job when you graduate in the spring."

"You didn't." she said slowly, the seriousness of the conversation they were having suddenly hitting her. "Alex—"

"So give me long distance, Rach." He interrupted, "We can handle a couple thousand miles for a few months. We can make trips, and theirs Internet, and phone calls. Then in May come and work for Seattle Grace."

"This is crazy." She replied, "It hasn't even been a week."

"Just think about what you want, Red. Stop telling yourself that it's crazy, or that it won't work, and just do what you want to do. What do you want, Rach?"

She sits with that for a couple minutes and he looks like he's about to explode. "I think," she says finally, letting the smile she'd been holding in spread across her lips, "That I want it to be May already."

"Really?" he asked, actually kind of shocked by her answer, "You really want to do this, you're sure."

"Shut up and kiss me, Karev." She responds, grabbing him by his jacket and pulling him in for a kiss. It was different than the other ones that they had shared, this one holding the possibility of a future.

XX

The two days after the wedding were pretty bittersweet. He couldn't get the days off of work in such late notice so most of the time they spent texting back and forth while she lay on his bed and he did him post-op paperwork. He said it was annoying, but she simply insisted that it was practice for when she went back home. They spent they did have together getting to know more about the other person, he made the excuse that they'd have months to get to know each other but only a day left to make out and most of the time she let him get by with that, not because she didn't want to know more about him, but because she knew that after tomorrow night she wouldn't get to kiss him again for at least another month and a half.

He somehow gets enough people to cover his shift at the hospital that the day she leaves he doesn't have to go in at all. "Can't you just stay for one more day?" he asks as his lips brush over the skin on her neck. She's packing up all of her stuff and he's making it incredibly difficult to concentrate.

"Stop that." She whines, "You know I can't."

"I know." He replies, "But it was worth a shot."

He pulls her bags over his shoulder and puts them into the back of his car when it's time for her to go, a sad silence filling the car as he drives them toward the air port.

"Text me when you land." He says when they're in front of her gate, her flight number had just been called and suddenly all of this was real, she was going, and he was staying, and for now their was nothing that they could do about it.

"I will." She says and he can see the sadness in her eyes, he figures his are pretty much matching. He presses his lips to her forehead softly before he places them on her lips, the girl only breaking away when the last call sounded over the intercom.

"I'll see you soon." She adds, pressing one last quick kiss to his lips before disappearing behind the gate.

This whole thing pretty much sucks, that she's finally found a guy that she gives a damn about and he lives across the country, but as the plane takes off she realizes that she wouldn't trade the events of the last week for anything in the world.

**A/N 2: If I get enough interest in the story I will definitely be making a part two (most likely bringing Alex into the world of Tree Hill this time) so be sure to leave a review if you liked the story and thanks for staying with it.**


End file.
